Robert P. Bauman

What is centrifugal force

The concept of centrifugal force rarely comes with an instruction manual: like the Coriolis force and the inertial force, centrifugal force belongs to the category of fictitious forces, also called apparent forces or pseudo-forces. Why are they called this way? The reason is that these forces can only exist in the context of imaginary descriptions. In effect, these forces do not really exist. Here is a selection of various observations, experiments or demonstrations supposedly proving the existence of centrifugal force, followed by the correct interpretations.

A note on integration of scalar products

A definite integral of a scalar product of vectors requires consideration of the angle between vectors in the original integral and may also involve an angle between vectors in a scalar product in the answer. In addition, there is often a change in variables in which the answer is expressed. This offers a third opportunity for change of sign, as illustrated by a common example.